The Dillon tribune., 1887-09-30
;1T LAWS OF nEREDlTY'
.o,es DRAWN FROM A collec"
s7ou's. ss.' oF FAMILY RECORDS.

,.e Drawn FROM A collec'
s7cu',S %'oH OF FAMILY RECORDS.
~, inference Between the Sexes IN
'''''' M frequency of Good and Fad 1e"-
the as Hereditary as Any
other quality
r.o,cis Galton, whose studies OF
Nj. a. heredity drawn from his Ia
the Ius mw1 collection Of family records must
oollud1Il .sa1l remembered, has just printed IN
ps' @ vs.. rT.ortnightly Review the results OF nus
Ine nes.+;sation Of the facts concerning what
inte,.lly i!nt.sn,;larly called ''temper, ana partic.
ka3,. lam the proportions Of good and bad
uIal! !.uoJ ~ VERSIONS in English domestic life
tenpssah pts', heredity of "tcmper." We cam
anu .a,,ow !al w. all the variations of Mr.. Gal
no1 w. lo.es oroseorch. or reproduce his ingenious
tons tonI.,ot;ons. but only note a few results.
cslcuit sIsans # may be thought surprising that
relu~p ,a unrppnortion of good tempered and bad
lne lne!pared pad nersons is almost exactly equal.
!eupat a. aest set of data which Mr.. Galton
!sa I9s oaye the proportion of the good to
ulen III = tempered as 48 to So, the second
!us .s ~ ~ TO So. There is little difference
sstween ss the two sexes in the frequency Of
oeod and bad temper, but that little is in
s Srnr Of the women, since about 40 men
90 .ss1 recorded as good tempered for every %
s!S,. .so sre bad, and conversely 66 women as
cnI WY tempered for As who are bad.
svNf ~ /. .36S children, 321 were good tenn
.,rod ond 342 were bad, with 7O5 wanting
srreciol characteristics Of temper. The
,rt apod and the bad tempered were thus
ssonal again, the neutral or medium class
Sa;nc % as numerous as the other two COM
s;nei. | results which Mr.. Galton says bear
smphatic testimony to the correct judg-
ments of his compilers. As to the au-
tbority Of these compilers or reporters,
and the capacity of any observers to deal
with the subject, he admits that ''accu-
nte discernment and designation Of char
,rrer is almost beyond the reach of any
one, but, on the other hand, rough
knowledge and description of it's promi-
nent features is easily practicable;;" and
he rightly thinks that there can be little
doubt Of the value of Testimony of q
member of a family who has seen and OBJ
served person in his unguartletl moments
and under very varied circumstances for
many years.
nERED1TY OF TEMPER.
Mr.. Galton is clear upon the important
question of the heredity of temper; he
SAYS IL is ''as hereditary as any other
qualty:''
n have forty-three cases where both
parents are recorded as good tempered
and twenty-five where they were both bad
tempered. Out of the children of the
former 80 per cent. We're good tempered
and 10 per cent. bad: out of the latter 4
per cent. were good and SO per cent. bad
tempered. This is emphatic testimony to
the heredity of tcmper.'
And he attempted, with still more suc-
cess, to answer the converse question: Do
god tempered families of brothers and
sisters have, on the whole, good tempered
ancestors, and bad tempered families bad
tempered ones? A good tempered family
he defines for the purpose as one in which
at least two members were good tempered
and none were bad, and u bad tempered
family as one in which at least two meme
bers were bad tempered, whether or not
any cases of good temper were said to DO
associated with them, and, as regards an
cestors he takes the two parents and the
ancles and aunts on both side as the most
trustworthy group. On this Mr.. Cation
says:
have forty-six good tempered families,
with an aggregate of 1873 parents, uncles
and aunts; and seventy-onc bad tempered
families, with 653 parents, uncles and
aants. In the former group 26 per cent.
were good tempered and 18 bad: in the
6iantt latter group IS We're good tempered and
~ ~ were bad, the remainder being neutral.
more briefly We say that when the family
s good tempered as above defined the
number OF good tempered parents, uncles
anu aunts exceeds that of the bad tenn
perez IN the proportion of three to two,
anu IN tnat when the family is bad tempered
,ae proportions are exactly reversed. ~
New York Post.